2014-06-22 マスキ嵐沢

マスキ嵐沢 Sawanobori in Nishi-Tanzawa

NB: the GPS record, especially in terms of altitude got fishy.

Today was my first real shower climbing outing of the season. In the midst of the rainy season I feared it may be canceled but it only rained moderately today and so we went as planned, a group of 20 ready to enjoy being wet most of the day.

From Shinmatsuda station we wrote the bus bound for Nishi-Tanzawa shizen kyoshitsu and got off one stop before the terminus. At the beginning the trail doesn't go directly in the river and I was wondering why until the first of a series on concrete dams came to sight. For about 30 minutes we walked on this trail with intermittent views on waterfalls partly blocked by trees. After a while we reached the starting point of the rivet trail (in fact there is no longer any trails) and entered the stream.

The water was not cold and it was no problem to get water to knee level with thin hiking pants. From the start there was a succession of waterfalls, some easily passable without any kind of security, some prompting the need to use fixed or top rope. I could take pictures frequently and used the tripod whenever I didn't feel too lazy. Moving people on pictures taken with up to 5s of exposure created colored streaks interestingly contrasting with the brown, green and white of the landscape.

On technical stretches, sub-leaders would place ropes and sometimes belay for others to climb with top rope. This way it got cluttered and immediately before climbing, and while waiting for the previous person to finish, I would get water splashed on my upper body while I hold on to rocks with both hands in the water, the whole thing making me quite cold. At noon we passed the last waterfall and put on more clothes on.

After a 5-minute lunch expedited to avoid getting any colder we resumed on a drier route with a final rocky stretch requiring most caution. Someone fell and the sudden pull on the rope surprised the belayer who must have been near half his weight, he collapsed and the rope attached to a tree extended so that the belayer was on the verge of losing control and fall off too, he wouldn't have gone much farther due to the self belay but from the bottom we couldn't see the self belay and it was very dramatic.
Before merging with the hiking trail on the ridge there was a final steep stretch on rocks and sand that crumbled easily at each footstep, fortunately a fixed rope had been judiciously placed there.
The hiking trail was moderately steep with few rocks on it, in other terms it was an invitation for running downhill with just a few stretches exposed and to be used gingerly.

Towards the end of the trail a fine waterfall presented itself and I ended there my series of pictures for the day. My new waterproof bag for the camera certainly worked well and I could take my DSLR and have no regrets (to take pictures with a compact much lower in quality) nor fears (to damage the DSLR)

Overall it was a great experience and interesting to find a place where it's possible to be cold at this time of the year.

More pictures here:  https://www.dropbox.com/sh/55uaqlzphdro420/AAAuCM1iR2QAU8UEEIfO0BdDa